The Spirit of Christmas
by TinyTurian
Summary: Shepard introduces Legion to Christmas, and the geth finds a way to make use of the human tradition.


**A/N: I wrote this for the secret fic swap at Aria's Afterlife. My prompt was **_Legion discovering the meaning of Christmas _**and to be honest I kinda struggled with it, mostly cause I can't write humor, or even Legion as a character. The first version was a lot longer but really bad so I scrapped it, then put this shorter thing together as best I could.**

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><p>Legion rarely doubted their decisions. All of them were made after careful consideration and no action was taken until a full consensus had been reached. But looking back at the events that had transpired here in the AI core the other day, Legion was doubting.<p>

When Tali had found them scanning her omni-tool, sending the data it contained on the Flotilla back to the other geth, she had put a gun to his head, swearing she'd blow it right off if he didn't stop the transmission. Shepard had intervened and resolved the situation. He had agreed with Legion and the information had reached the geth. After leaving a bullet hole in the ceiling Tali had stormed out, but Legion had gotten what they needed.

It wasn't the choice to take the data in itself that they were reconsidering. They were still in consensus on the matter, plus, Shepard had agreed with them as well. It wasn't Tali's reaction that disturbed them either; she wanted to defend the interests of her people and had acted accordingly. Still, Legion suspected their uncertainty indeed had something to do with the quarian engineer.

_Should they approach her? _

... A consensus could not be reached. The voice of a third party was required.

Legion left the AI core and headed for the elevator. Destination: Deck 1: Captain's Cabin.

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><p>The interior of the cabin was… different. Behind Shepard, who stood in the doorway with a big smile on his face and a red, droopy hat hanging from his head, were bright blinking lights, odd little decorations and ornaments and some sort of white, sparkling perennial plant. An upbeat cacophony of bells and chimes played over the sound system. Legion processed all this.<p>

Shepard beamed at him. "Legion? What's up?"

"Shepard-Commander, we require your opinion on something."

"Oh?" Shepard said, smile not faltering. "Come in then!"

Legion followed Shepard into his room. The commander sat down in one of the armchairs while the geth remained standing.

"Well, what is it?"

"It regards Tali, and the incident two days ago."

"Go on." Shepard took a glass and a bottle labelled "Egg Nog" from the table and poured him a glass.

"We are concerned our actions may have caused disruption within the crew."

"Oh," Shepard said, setting the bottle down. "Don't worry about that it. I've talked with Tali and she came to her senses. Everything worked itself out."

The flaps on Legions head widened to express surprise. "We understand."

It appeared the situation had been resolved without their intervention, but now a new anomaly had shown itself. Quite a few of them, actually.

"Shepard-Commander, if you don't mind us inquiring, what has happened to your quarters?"

"Oh, you mean my Christmas stuff?"

"Christmas?" Legion's expressionless voice repeated.

"Yeah. It's a holiday that's being celebrated back on earth right now. I really like it, I tried to get the crew into it on the last campaign but they didn't really get it, especially not the aliens, so I'm just decorating up here this year."

"Tell us more."

Shepard's face lit back up like the tree he was sitting next to. "Really? You mean you're actually interested? Well, what you're listening to right now," Shepard said excitedly, pointing to the sound system. "is some classic Christmas music!"

Legion processed the man's increasing exuberance.

Shepard bounced out of his chair and over to the tree. "And this," he proclaimed, "is a Christmas tree! The heart of the Holiday!"

Legion looked at him, waiting for an explanation. "What is its purpose, Shepard-Commander?"

This question seemed to stump Shepard somewhat. "Well, uh… really just to make people happy and… spread the Christmas spirit, you know?"

Legion didn't know. "And what is the purpose of Christmas, Shepard-Commander?"

"That one's pretty hard to answer." Shepard scratched the back of his head. "It was a religious thing back in the day but now… I guess it's just about the same things as the tree, you know? Happiness and cheer and all that. I don't really know, it's just fun. Oh, and there are presents involved."

The change in topic managed to successfully distract the geth. "Presents?"

"Yeah!" Shepard grinned. "Actually, I think presents might be the purpose of Christmas, now that I think about it."

"Really?"

"Mhm, like those." Shepard pointed to some colorful packages under the Christmas tree. "Those are just empty boxes though."

They listened, they processed, and they came to a consensus. A decision had been made and they knew what course of action had to be taken.

"Shepard-Commander, if this unit wished to give someone one these "Christmas gifts", would you provide assistance?"

Shepard grinned. "Are you kidding me?"

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><p>Legion sat in the dim red light of the AI core, turning the wrapping paper Shepard had given them over in their hands. They took the scissors and slowly cut the paper. They wrapped it around the object and then finished it off by tying a red little bow around the package.<p>

This was unnecessary. They could just transfer a digital version of the gift to her omni-tool, but that would not be in the spirit of Christmas, according to the Commander. They studied their creation, wondering if it would be appreciated. They probably shouldn't deliver it in person; they would just leave it in the engineering deck to be found by her. That would be for the better.

They just hoped this Christmas thing would work.

Tali rolled her eyes. Right in the middle of her workplace, lying on top of the panel she used for her work, was a big, rectangle package. She saw the colorful paper and the little bow on top of it and immediately recognized it as another one of Shepard's weird Christmas traditions. She's hoped he wouldn't force it down the crew's throat this Campaign like he did last time around, but apparently she wasn't so lucky. She began to open the package, hoping it wasn't another one of Shepard's dumb attempts at courting her.

When the present had been opened, Tali realized that it couldn't be from Shepard. It was a picture, a photo, of Rannoch.

It couldn't have been taken by a satellite, the angle suggested it had to have been taken on ground level. It wasn't a photo from back when the quarians inhabited the planet, it was just different, Tali had looked at enough old photos to be able to tell. She knew who must have left it here, but that couldn't be right, could it?

Whoever had left this for her, it was a sweet gesture. As she looked down at the object in her hands Tali couldn't help but smile behind her mask. It would probably be for the best to leave the giver a mystery.

More importantly, where should she hang this?


End file.
